by E Molgaard
My skin tingles as Liam runs his lips down my neck. “You drive me crazy Liz.”
I’m breathless as his name escapes my lips. Liam kisses my neck but it’s not enough. I pull his face to mine and kiss him, showing him how crazy I am for him. But before we can get lost in each other, I pull back slightly. “We need to go before I decide to let you remove this dress from my body.”
“Don’t tease me with that. You’re getting me all riled up.”
“Just think of Charlie and your mom. That will calm you down.” I pat his chest and walk out of his room and head for the door.
“Now who’s ruining the fun?” We both chuckle as I point to myself and he nods in agreement as he picks up the cake and meets me at the door. I hold the door open for him, but he stops in front of me and leans down giving me a quick kiss with a huge smile on his face. My knees go weak as I feel myself falling for him a little more.
On our way to my parents’ house, I tell Liam all about Amber, but of course I left out her name and her relationship to Mr. Barnes. I can tell Liam was worried about the situation because Amber is an addict. And he knows addicts are unpredictable. I do my best to reassure him that everything will be fine and that Julia knows how to deal with her.
I pull up to my parents’ house five minutes before 6:30 and I can see that everyone is already here. Liam grabs the cake and I grab the centerpiece and as we’re carrying them into the house, Caleb and Drew both come rushing out to grab the items from us. I try to get into the house to check on everything but Drew blocks me, pushing me back to the car, telling me everything is ready and that I need to go get the special guest. Even though a part of me is silently freaking out that I can’t see everything beforehand, I walk back to my car and drive the hundred feet to Michelle’s house.
Nurse Nancy is waiting for Liam and I at the door as we walk up to the house holding the flowers for Michelle. We invited Nancy to our dinner but she decided to take the few hours to be with her family. Liam wraps Nancy in a hug. “Hello Nancy. How did everything go this afternoon?”
I give her a quick hug as well. “It’s good to see you guys. Good. She’s excited about y’alls dinner.” She lowers her voice. “She has no idea about what you guys have planned.”
I smile up at Liam excited to see her reaction. “Is she in the living room?”
Nancy nods. “Yeah she’s been ready for about an hour. If it’s okay with you guys, I’m going to head out. She’s already had her meds for the evening. If you need me for anything, I’ll have my cell with me and I’ll be back at eight.”
“Sounds good. Have a good dinner with your family.”
We round the corner to the living room to find Michelle sitting in her favorite chair watching Wheel of Fortune. “Hi Mom!” Liam walks around the chair first to give her a kiss.
I follow behind him and give her a kiss on the other cheek. “Hello Michelle.”
“Oh loves. Look at the two of you. I’m so happy we can do dinner.”
Michelle goes to stand up and Liam steps forward to help her. With her now standing, I can really tell how thin she has gotten as her pants hang loose off of her and her long sleeve shirt swallows her. I have to remind myself not to cry. This isn’t the time. So, I put a huge smile on my face and hold the flowers out to her. “These are for you.”
Michelle’s smile grows as she touches the flowers. “I love these. Thank you. Will you place them on the table?” I place them down on the side table next to her chair and she leans down to smell them. “They are so beautiful. Thank you again.”
She hugs us both and it scares me how small she is. She feels like only skin and bones. It hits me then that she probably doesn’t have much more time with us. I can feel the tears forming in my eyes as I watch her hug Liam and my heart breaks. Liam looks at me and gives me a small smile letting me know he already figured it out. I look away from them to get myself together. This is supposed to be a happy night.
Michelle walks past me towards the door. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.” Her smile is so happy as she beams at us.
Liam walks up beside me placing his hand on my lower back. “You okay?”
I give him a small smile because he knows that I’m doing my best to be okay. He gives me a quick kiss before heading over to his mom to help her into her cardigan. I follow behind them as we walk out of the house and head to my car. Once she’s in the passenger seat, the plan starts. Climbing into the driver seat I say, “Do you mind if we stop by my parents’ house for a few minutes. They called me on the way here saying they needed to give something.”
“That’s fine. Sweetie.” I back out of her driveway as she looks out her window. “It looks like your parents have some people over. Are you sure we should interrupt?”
“It’s fine. We won’t be here long.” I look at Liam in the rearview mirror and he has a huge smile on his face. Good thing she can’t see him or she’d know something was up. Liam is the first out of the car as I park and as he walks around the car to help his mom, I can hear him let out a laugh. What is he laughing at?
I walk towards the house in front of Liam and Michelle and when I open the door everyone is there smiling. Stepping to the side, Michelle gasps as she sees everyone. “What’s this?”
Liam wraps his arm around her shoulders. “This is all for you.”
Tears start pooling in her eyes as she looks at everyone. “Oh my god. This is amazing.”
Gracie runs up to her grandma and hugs her legs. “Granny why you crying?”
Michelle rubs the top of the girl’s head. “These are happy tears my sweet little girl. I’m so surprised and happy that you guys are doing this for me. I love all of you so much.” Looking around the room seeing everyone else’s teary eyes, I know that we all love Michelle and love to see her this happy during the hardest time of her life. Liam wraps his arm around my shoulders so I wrap my arm around his waist as he guides me into the house so everyone can say their hellos. “This was a great idea. I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time.” I give him a quick kiss before leaning into him to watch everyone. “By the way you are a horrible liar.”
I hit his chest as we both chuckle. “Well you weren’t helping with laughing.”
Throughout the entire dinner Michelle’s smile never fell. She laughed, played with her granddaughter, told stories about Charlie and Liam, and enjoyed all the love she was receiving. When she said her goodbyes to everyone, she had tears running down her face as she kissed everyone’s cheek and said thanks. I could tell none of us wanted this night to end.
When we drop her off at the house, I can tell she’s exhausted and fading fast. We help her get ready for bed and as we give her the final hugs of the night, she’s smiling. “I love you both and thank you for tonight. It was one of the best days of my life.”
Nancy comes into the room to help Michelle into bed and we leave waving goodbye to both of them. Our drive back to Liam’s was quiet but not distant. We hold each other’s hand as we keep our thoughts to ourselves like we aren’t ready to say them out loud yet. We’re silent until we climb into bed and we’re in each other’s arm.
“She’s not going to survive for much longer, is she?”
I can hear the pain in his voice and I can’t hold back my tears any longer. I shake my head no as I look up at Liam who is crying too. We pull each other closer as we try to pull comfort from the other. I kiss Liam’s chest as he kisses the top of my head and we both fall asleep like this.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Liz
“Oh my god. I’ve missed you. I’ve forgotten what you looked like.” I stand up from my chair and hug Mack so tight. I haven’t seen her at all in the two weeks since the dinner for Michelle. She’s been sick for about a week. Plus, with me basically staying at Liam’s and Drew at our place we just haven’t been able to hang out. We actually had to plan this lunch in order to set aside time to see each other.
“I’ve missed you too. How are you feeling?” We both sit down
at the small table.
“I’m so much better. I still have a few days left of the antibiotics but I feel a hundred percent again.”
“That’s great. We need to get better with seeing each other. I know we’re both dating but I still need to see you on a regular basis. Liam doesn’t girl talk as well as you do.”
She chuckles. “I know. Drew just rolls his eyes at me.”
I shake my head smirking. “He better not.”
“He really does. I was trying to tell him how much of a bitch this new nurse is and he just rolled his eyes saying ‘I shouldn’t allow what she says to affect me.’ What a man answer. He just doesn’t understand.”
The waitress comes over to take our order and as she walks away, I lean forward on the table and say, “Well tell me about this new nurse.”
Mack then goes into a fifteen minute rant about how this new nurse likes to undermine her, talk trash about how she had to work more shifts because Mack was out sick, and calls her names under her breath when Mack’s talking with one of the residents that the nurse apparently likes.
“She sounds like a total bitch. Is she only like this with you?”
“No that’s the thing, she’s like that with Sarah, Meghan, and Emerson.”
“How has she not been fired yet?”
“Well the head of the ER knows about her but they won’t do anything because she’s a travel nurse and will only be here for two months.”
“How is she with the patients?”
“An Angel. If she was bad with the patients then she’d be gone already. They’re just asking us to deal with it until she leaves because we need the help. But that’s enough about her. Tell me all about you and Liam. How’s everything going? I want all the dirty details.”
I laugh at her. “I don’t have any dirty details to tell. But we’re doing good. I’m falling for him more every day and it feels like we’ve been together forever.”
“What do you mean they are no details? Are you holding back on me?”
I shake my head no. “We’ve haven’t had sex yet. We wanted to make sure that it wouldn’t be just about the sex, so we waited. But it would have never been just sex with Liam. We have too much history. But now I don’t know how to bring it up. It’s not like we’re not attracted to each other. When I’m just in the same room as him I can feel him all over. When he touches me, sparks flash through my body and when he kisses me, I never want him to stop. And I know he feels the same way. I can see it in his eyes, the way he watches me from across the room, and the fire that burns in his eyes when I tease him. The way he holds me, showing me I’m his even when no one is around and his kiss is like he’s trying to undress me without touching me.”
“God I’m all hot and bothered just hearing everything. I don’t know how you do it.”
The waitress delivers our sandwiches while giving us a weird look which makes me want to bust out laughing. When she is out of ear shot, I say, “I know. What do I do? Do you think Liam doesn’t want to have sex with me? I know it’s a crazy thought but…”
“Stop that. Liam totally wants to have sex with you. He basically undresses you with his eyes whenever you’re in the room. You should just greet him one night wearing just lingerie. He won’t turn you down then. I do that all the time with Drew.”
“First of all, gross. We cannot talk about Drew and your sex life. Second, that would be great for when we are actually having sex. If I did that now it would be like I’m forcing it.”
“Then just wait for it to happen. The right time will come around and when it does it will be great. I know you don’t want to hear about Drew and me but we didn’t just jump into bed when we started dating. I made him work for it a little. There’s nothing wrong with waiting. All the anticipation will make for a great time when it finally does happen.”
I smile and nod letting her know she’s right. “How are you and Drew doing? Did he take care of you while you were sick? What have you guys been up to?”
“Drew’s been great. He treats me like a queen. He’ll send me flowers at work for no reason, plan amazing dates out of the blue, he picks up my favorite ice cream when I’m having a bad day, and when I was sick, he barely left my side. He made me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world when I truly felt like an ugly voiceless monster.” Mack is beaming as she talks about Drew and it makes me so happy to see her this happy. “I’ve never been treated this well before in my life. Your mom …” Mack stops as something catches her attention behind me. “Janice?”
I quickly turn around to see Janice, one of Carly’s high school best friends, walking over to us. What the hell does she want? When she approaches our table, I can tell she’s nervous. “Umm. Hi Liz. Hi Mack.”
Mack and I both say at the same time. “Hi.”
I know she can tell we’re confused about why she’s talking to us so she points to the empty chair at our table. “I just wanted to come over and apologize. Do you mind if I sit for a minute?”
I look to Mack and she gives me an ‘I don’t know’ look while shrugging her shoulders. Well she is no help. I look back to Janice and she looks more and more uncomfortable with every second that passes. How bad can this be? I gesture towards the chair letting her know it’s okay to seat.
“Thank you. I won’t take up too much of your time but I saw you here and I knew I had to come over and apologize for the locker room. Carly was an awful person and I didn’t realize it until college but I also knew Carly wasn’t the only one responsible for what we did to you. So, I just want to say that I’m sorry. We wanted to bring you down to your lowest and we did that with lies. Liam never said a loving thing to Carly and she was jealous. She saw how loving Liam talked to you and she wanted that. He never called her his sun. That was something she overheard him saying to you and he was definitely never using you until he got back with her.”
Hearing the words come out of her mouth I realize that I’ve known Liam didn’t ever say those things to Carly. I believe Liam and have believed him probably since that first week he came back into my life. I have not had any doubt in what Liam has said to me. I know he would never say anything to me that he didn’t mean and when he says special things to me, he’s showing me a piece of his heart. My smile grows and Janice looks at me confused. “Thank you Janice, for apologizing. I really appreciate it.”
“I just hope there’s no bad blood between us. I have a little girl now and I want her to be the friendliest person ever and not judge and pick on people like I did when I was younger.”
“No bad blood. You were young and I know you aren’t a bad person. You were just following your friend.”
Janice stands up from the table and pulls me into a hug. “Thank you.” She gives Mack a hug as well. “Well I’ll leave you guys to your lunch. Thank you again for letting me talk to you.”
We wave bye to each other as she walks over to what I’m guessing is her family. Mack’s face is priceless when I turn around to look at her. It’s a mixture of ‘oh my god’ and ‘what the hell.’ I bust out laughing and she joins me. “Well I wasn’t expecting that.”
“That was definitely a fun twist to our lunch. How do you feel about what she said?”
“It was nice that she apologized. But I also realized I haven’t been doubting Liam which is a great feeling. Once I let Liam in, my walls fell down. I know he’s special to me and I’m special to him. Everything Liam says to me is genuine and loving. He doesn’t say things to me to make me happy. He says them because that’s how he feels and he has always done that. The one thing I wish was that I would have realized that six years ago.”
“I think you and Liam were supposed to break up in high school and reconnect now. You both have grown so much since then which makes you more likely to last than if you were eighteen.”
“I just wish the doubt wasn’t there for so long. You saw how it affected me.”
“Yes, but it made you who you are today. Don’t doubt your past. It’s brought you to where you
are today. And today everything is great. We’re both happy with great men and have a life we love.”
“When did you become so wise?”
“Last week when I had to entertain myself all day while being sick.”
We both bust out laughing. “Well I am glad it’s not something I’ve missed all this time.” Mack throws a piece on her bread at me and I look at her shocked. Our waitress walks over to check on us right as I throw a piece of bread at Mack. To say she’s pissed is an understatement. With her glare she scolds us without a word which makes Mack and I slide down in our chairs. When she walks away, Mack and I finish our sandwiches and pay so won’t get kicked out of our favorite café.
When I get back to Liam’s apartment, I find him lying down on the couch watching tv. He smiles up at me as I walk over to the couch and my heart skips a beat. God he’s so cute and sexy. I climb over top of him straddling his waist. “Guess what?”
“You want to strip naked and let me have my way with you.” I chuckle and lean forward to kiss him. I want the kiss to be quick but Liam has other plans. He tangles his fingers into my hair holding me to him, deepening our kiss. But before I get too lost in us, I pull back shaking my head slightly at him.
“I want that. I really do, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you. Mack and I saw Janice today.”
Liam looks worried as he sits up moving us so he’s leaning on the back of the couch and I’m still in his lap. “Was she mean to you?”
I smile letting him know this is a good conversation while shaking my head no. “She actually apologized for all the awful things they said to me.”
“That’s good.”
I nod agreement. “I haven’t told you yet exactly what they said to me because what they said really tore me down. It made me doubt everything. For about a year after that day I was depressed, had no self-confidence, and only left my room for class. A part of it had to do with not having you anymore but the other part was the self-doubt. Being a teenage girl and hearing that the guy you love is only using you until they get back with their ex or that when he tells you your special he doesn’t mean it because he says it to everyone. Or that he also called his bitch of an ex his sun too, it kills you.” Liam opens his mouth to say something, but I put a finger to his lips telling him I’m not done.